I’m not a big “gamer,” but I do enjoy grabbing my Playstation 3 controller and playing video games from time to time. Now that I’ve become an adult, gotten married and have a full-time job, I can no longer stay up all night playing first-person shooter games like Halo or sports games like NCAA Football ’13. However, on occasion, I indulge in the action-adventure video game series, Assassin’s Creed.
Produced by Ubisoft, the first game in the series appeared back in 2007 and I’ve been hooked ever since. The game follows a line of ancient assassins throughout history. From traveling through the Holy Lands during the Third Crusade to following the path of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries, the outstanding story line allows gamers the opportunity to transport themselves to a time in which modern-day historians can only dream about.
It’s a game that draws you in and tells a great story. And I’ll admit that I’ve had more than one Assassin’s Creed weekend playing binge over the last two years.
Suffice to say, when I was made aware of University of Mississippi Assistant Professor Nicolas Trepanier‘s recent article about teaching a class using Assassin’s Creed in a May issue of the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History, I knew I had missed the boat to play video games for school. It’s a pretty interesting read.
Dr. Trepanier discusses the benefits and limitations of using video games as a teaching tool in the college classroom as well as how to deal with some of the inaccuracies of historical video games.
While I’ve never been a history buff, this teaching concept sounds like something I could get behind. Looks like I’ll be going back to school (and playing a lot more video games).